Gold Medal Classroom

Mar 29, 2024, 12:12

Honey in the Classroom

Sunday, 31 May 2009 21:14
By Mitch Stamm, CEPC, Johnson & Wales University

For baked goods, honey is more expensive than sucrose, but like butter, honey is prized for its taste, aroma and mouthfeel.

Honey by the numbers

  • Bees are responsible for one in every three bites of food in our country.

  • A bee weighs .004 of an ounce; it can transport half (.002 of an ounce) of its weight in nectar.

  • For every 9 pounds of honey in the hive, 1 is harvested for human consumption and 8 remain to sustain the hive.

  • That 1 pound of honey represents more than 2 million flowers visited with more than 50,000 miles of flight, approximately three times around the world

  • A bee’s life is measured in miles, not time. An average is 500 miles or until its wings are worn and tattered.  In the spring, when nectar flow is at its peak, this can be as short as five to six weeks.